Well, back from an eventful holiday. Great to see my sister and bro-in-law in Manchester (thanks guys) and my grandmother and great uncle in Edinburgh. Some 950 miles driven but a great time had...
I was late to bed and up early to write what follows which is a version of what I preached this morning - Pentecost Sunday...
I recently have finished reading Barak Obama's "Dreams from my Father" which he wrote long before he even ran for the Senate. The book is masterfully written. As I read I was drawn into the story of the President’s early life and the discovery of his Kenyan roots, in a way that novel often does for me. It was absorbing.
A significant chunk of the book tells of his experiences as a Community Organiser in Chicago. He worked in the toughest neighbourhoods amongst communities who had been shunned, forgotten about, and socially and economically abused by ‘the system.’ These stories of the streets and communities of the Windy City ring true with any who've felt the tears, sweat and blood of working urban streets. Most of his time was spent with churches in poor areas even though at that point he was "a reluctant sceptic".
One Sunday morning he goes to Trinity Church. The Gospel Choir enters, clad in white, clapping and singing to quickening drums. The Pastor gets to the pulpit and preaches about the audacity of hope. You have to read the chapter to feel the impact this has on Obama. But as he hears the preacher intone the spiritual "Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. You brought me from a mighty long way" a young boy sitting next to him hands him a pocket tissue. It's only then, as he thanks him, that Obama realises and feels the tears running down his cheeks. And just in case this man-born-to-be-president fails to grasp the impact of this moment of faith, one that will take him from the back streets of Chicago to the political avenues of Washington, the boy's mother whispers softly "Oh Jesus, thank you for carrying us this far".
The events we recall this morning are about the audacious hope of God at work on the streets and the homes of Chicago... and Leverstock Green. They are about seeing lives in those streets transformed by the presence of a God as powerfully present in His seeming abscence. They are about knowing that it is God who has brought us this far, but who longs to take us so much further.
Throughout his ministry, Jesus has drawn people to him, he has built community focussed on the presence of God at work in and through him. As Jesus leaves his disciples, he builds a community focussed on his abscence - a community
that is now well aware that Jesus is no longer with them and yet, as they will discover, clearly still with them.
Whilst with his disciples, Jesus worked on building intimate relationships withe them. In recent weeks we have heard Jesus address his disciples in a new way, as friends. He assures that as his friends they have seen and heard God at work amongst them, but as his friends they also need to be preparing for him to Go away. Not because Jesus is suddenly less interested in an intimate relationship with people he has spent time with, but because Jesus’ ministry in not about intimate relationships, but about mission in which he assumes that those closest to him will share fully in - a sharing of something of the reality of God’s love in our lives and the world. To do this, Jesus needs to be absent so the Holy Spirit can be present in power - encouraging, equipping, empowering and transforming the people he loves most.
Barak Obama discovered a passion for people and the world around him on the streets of Chicago, but he didn’t see a need for a passionate relationship with God until God cam to find him in the pews of Trinity Church. Friends I am fed up of this sort separation of life. Why can’t I be passionate about the world and her peoples and seek justice for them, and be passionate about God? Today of all days, through what God did with the disciples and continues to do amongst us, I have discovered I can...
Today we recall the Holy Spirit-fired apostles bursting on the Jerusalem scene that first Pentecost with the startling announcement that the Good News is not just good news for the Jews. The announcement is to be heard everywhere and by everyone. And they all hear it - in their own languages! The resurrection is a gigantic stone heaved by God into the world, and its ripples are beginning to spread “from Jerusalem, through Judea, Samaria and to the uttermost ends of the earth”. God isn’t just interested in sorting out the Jewish people’s problems - God is in the business of transforming the world! God is not the tribal god of a small nation, but is God of all the nations. The God who broke the power of Pharaoh is the God who will smash all systems that enslave, oppress and kill. And how should we know this? Because the Spirit is being poured out … on all flesh. These are the Last Days. This is salvation time!
God is passionate about me and you, and calls us into passionate relationship with him, but so that through us, empowered by the Holy Spirit, we too can proclaim the news that God is still transforming the world! Today we are thankful that God has taken us this far, because the coming of the Holy Spirit what we recall today, is not God doing something new, but something that Jesus had promised his disciples, and something that God had promised throughout the scriptures. Something that would continue to happen to his church in our day, and yet all too often Sunday mornings can so often feel like a bad zombie movie ‘Church of the Living Dead’, and yet in a way that’s right. We’re seen as an institution past its sell-by date, inhabited by people equally past their sell-by date. Our buildings, hymns and practices are monuments to a past that has long gone: we just haven’t realised it!
Pentecost is a wake up call to the Church. The message of hope - the Good News of what God has done in Jesus to save the world - still needs to be heard. It has no sell-by date! The message of a world that needs transforming is as fresh and needed as ever it was - perhaps more so than at any time in living or recent memory. There is still a missionary task to be completed, and that means that God still has need of a faithful community of witnesses.
Friends, that’s the audacity of Hope. What we are doing today is not celebrating something in the past, but turning to God, and saying, go on then, here I am, use me. I am so thankful to God for getting us this far, but by the renewing power of his Holy Spirit, we go further, speak more effectively, love longer the love of God, allowing that love free reign in us to transform us, our community and our world.
Can God Hear Music?
(For all my musician friends)
I endorse something other (and I believe better) than “God is outside of time” dogma. This is controversial for sure, but I cannot help what started as an intuitive aversion and has grown into Open Theism. True, very smart and sincere Christians disagree with me and others on this. Yet “God is outside of time” still seems to create problems. Already, I have argued why I think it is a problem for free will. Now, I think I have another: can a timeless God hear music? Can he know our songs and voices when we sing to him? Or is music, which must exist in time, simply another ‘weakness’ of us pitied temporal beings? The truth may be in between, but If God is timeless, hearing music might be very, very, hard.
God’s timelessness –or eternality- carries with it some implications for knowledge of anything –music included. Timelessness does not say that God lives forever, or that God has infinitely long past. Rather, it says that God is outside these temporal categories altogether. Putting time prepositions on God such as “before,” “during,” “after,” etc are actually incoherent. There can be no changes in God, for this involves time. Likewise there can be no learning in God, for this would change God’s knowledge.
God’s timeless knowledge of things in time is different than our knowledge. God knows all things, as Aquinas put it, “in one act of understanding.” God knows all things without them being mediated via time or anything else. Saying God knows “instantly” fails to capture it. This of course, does not mean that God doesn’t know when things happen. God knows that my typing occurs at 11:08am Friday morning. He also knows that I drive my Toyota at 9:43am the same day, and that I talk with a friend at 12:32pm. God knows the times, but God does not experience them in a sequential order. This would imply changes in God’s knowledge and thus violate timelessness.
The crux of the problem comes when we think about what music is. During my time at a junior college (I was a music major, then I switched to theology for the money), my theory instructor explained that music is an art form that unfolds in time. It is not like a painting or sculpture that is static. When listening to music, we hear a sequence of notes, changes in timbre, crescendo etc. Something as fundamental as a single pitch (“the A string vibrates at 440hertz per second”) is still measured and described in time. For someone to know music as music, it must be known in time. Dramatic crescendos are not music until you hear them soft before and then louder later. A melody is not a melody unless you hear one note, followed by another note, and then a third and so on. To know music, one must do something a timeless being does not: know things in a sequential order and experiences the changes over time.
Some may object here and say that a timeless God would know music just like he knows everything else. God knows this note is played at this time, another is played at another time, a third played a different time and so on and so forth. God knows also the intensity and volume of each note. Any other detail he knows in the same way. Thus, God knows an entire song in one act of understanding, without experiencing it sequentially.
But is this really music? What this sounds more like to me is a piece of music written down but not played, or better yet MIDI data or piano reel. Does anybody seriously think that looking at piano reel is fundamentally the same as actually listening to a piano? Of course not. The piano reel or the MIDI data are not music. It is not until that you hit the “play” button and listen to changes of sounds and music sequentially and in time.
Some may persist, under that grounds (or habit) that God’s timeless is simply too sacrosanct to reject. I can respect this position, but I still think that it has certain implications for music. If someone wants to preserve God’s timelessness and God hearing music, then we have to change the term “music” slightly. Instead of saying that music is art form that unfolds in time, we have to be willing to say that there is no essential difference between MIDI data and music being heard in time. Or, a piece of sheet music is more fundamentally music than that music performed. This is strange implication that I think most musicians (myself included) would not accept, but this is what I think follows from reconciling God’s timelessness and God hearing music.
That’s the end of this blog then. Music is something that must be experienced sequentially, but a timeless God experiencing nothing sequentially. Therefore, God does not know music. No doubt, many of you reading this probably think I’ve gone of the top. Chances are you are correct. Nonetheless, I think that my lifelong involvement with music is probably one of the reasons why I’ve always had an intuitive aversion to timelessness dogma.
Thanks for reading.
I endorse something other (and I believe better) than “God is outside of time” dogma. This is controversial for sure, but I cannot help what started as an intuitive aversion and has grown into Open Theism. True, very smart and sincere Christians disagree with me and others on this. Yet “God is outside of time” still seems to create problems. Already, I have argued why I think it is a problem for free will. Now, I think I have another: can a timeless God hear music? Can he know our songs and voices when we sing to him? Or is music, which must exist in time, simply another ‘weakness’ of us pitied temporal beings? The truth may be in between, but If God is timeless, hearing music might be very, very, hard.
God’s timelessness –or eternality- carries with it some implications for knowledge of anything –music included. Timelessness does not say that God lives forever, or that God has infinitely long past. Rather, it says that God is outside these temporal categories altogether. Putting time prepositions on God such as “before,” “during,” “after,” etc are actually incoherent. There can be no changes in God, for this involves time. Likewise there can be no learning in God, for this would change God’s knowledge.
God’s timeless knowledge of things in time is different than our knowledge. God knows all things, as Aquinas put it, “in one act of understanding.” God knows all things without them being mediated via time or anything else. Saying God knows “instantly” fails to capture it. This of course, does not mean that God doesn’t know when things happen. God knows that my typing occurs at 11:08am Friday morning. He also knows that I drive my Toyota at 9:43am the same day, and that I talk with a friend at 12:32pm. God knows the times, but God does not experience them in a sequential order. This would imply changes in God’s knowledge and thus violate timelessness.
The crux of the problem comes when we think about what music is. During my time at a junior college (I was a music major, then I switched to theology for the money), my theory instructor explained that music is an art form that unfolds in time. It is not like a painting or sculpture that is static. When listening to music, we hear a sequence of notes, changes in timbre, crescendo etc. Something as fundamental as a single pitch (“the A string vibrates at 440hertz per second”) is still measured and described in time. For someone to know music as music, it must be known in time. Dramatic crescendos are not music until you hear them soft before and then louder later. A melody is not a melody unless you hear one note, followed by another note, and then a third and so on. To know music, one must do something a timeless being does not: know things in a sequential order and experiences the changes over time.
Some may object here and say that a timeless God would know music just like he knows everything else. God knows this note is played at this time, another is played at another time, a third played a different time and so on and so forth. God knows also the intensity and volume of each note. Any other detail he knows in the same way. Thus, God knows an entire song in one act of understanding, without experiencing it sequentially.
But is this really music? What this sounds more like to me is a piece of music written down but not played, or better yet MIDI data or piano reel. Does anybody seriously think that looking at piano reel is fundamentally the same as actually listening to a piano? Of course not. The piano reel or the MIDI data are not music. It is not until that you hit the “play” button and listen to changes of sounds and music sequentially and in time.
Some may persist, under that grounds (or habit) that God’s timeless is simply too sacrosanct to reject. I can respect this position, but I still think that it has certain implications for music. If someone wants to preserve God’s timelessness and God hearing music, then we have to change the term “music” slightly. Instead of saying that music is art form that unfolds in time, we have to be willing to say that there is no essential difference between MIDI data and music being heard in time. Or, a piece of sheet music is more fundamentally music than that music performed. This is strange implication that I think most musicians (myself included) would not accept, but this is what I think follows from reconciling God’s timelessness and God hearing music.
That’s the end of this blog then. Music is something that must be experienced sequentially, but a timeless God experiencing nothing sequentially. Therefore, God does not know music. No doubt, many of you reading this probably think I’ve gone of the top. Chances are you are correct. Nonetheless, I think that my lifelong involvement with music is probably one of the reasons why I’ve always had an intuitive aversion to timelessness dogma.
Thanks for reading.
Some thoughts on Apophatic Theology
Recently I was thinking about apophatic theology. There is, after all, a strong historical tradition that teaches that God cannot be spoken of by affirmations. In other words, on cannot speak positively of God. There has been a lot of ink spilled on this subject. Whole volumes have been written on God's ineffability.
I have decided to add a small contribution to this tradition in my blog. What follows is carefully thought out, and what I feel is the most consistent presentation of apophatic theology.
Thanks for reading.
I have decided to add a small contribution to this tradition in my blog. What follows is carefully thought out, and what I feel is the most consistent presentation of apophatic theology.
Thanks for reading.
Star Trek: The Apocryphal Movie
Last night, I went to see the latest Star Trek movie. Did I like it? Mostly. I thought it was a good movie, though not without its problems for sure. Overall, I liked it in a similar way I liked the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Adore” album. That album was pretty good, but it was not really the Smashing Pumpkins sound I grew to like. So this movie was a well done, but it did not feel like Star Trek.
There were a lot of things that I liked. I loved young Kirk for instance. From the opening scene to the end of the movie, I thought he was well done. I find it totally believable that he would do stunts like steal the car, get into a fight at the bar, make out with the green alien girl, and other fun romps of a brash young military cadet. Little Spock was well done too. I liked the Vulcan academy of his childhood, how different both his parent’s were, and especially his refusal to enter into the Vulcan science academy. Seeing the characters as youngsters I think was a bold move. Overall it was successful. Additionally, as I will explain later, it was also a great selling point.
The interaction between these two characters was also true to the original series.
I only watched “Search for Spock” a few years ago. The friendship between the two men in this movie and that movie seemed pretty accurate to me.
I can’t complain about the special effects either. They were well executed without being gratuitous. The excitement of the chase scenes and the starship design was eye-catching enough to be a point in the movie’s favor. It was not, for instance, Star Wars episode I, in which special effects were simply a long video-game/demo reel. No, in this movie the CGI served its purpose. It helped create a convincing illusion of life in space. Although I admit, I totally expected young Kirk to meet Luke Skywalker when he ran into that ice cave. Live long and prosper my young padawan!
There were, however, some major plot-hole/logic problems with the movie. First, what’s up with the Romulans? The last Romulans I remember seeing were the Deep Space Nine Romulans in which they were all so bad-ass, cultured, and refined that they knew they earned the right to be a little smug around say –the Klingons. Yet these Romulans were basically a band of pirate-thugs that had lost any sense of refinement from the Romulan Empire. Maybe that was the point. After all, they did get their planet destroyed. It wasn’t made clear in the movie that this was the case though.
Another problem I had was with Sovereign, -I mean the Romulan pirate/mining ship. Why is it so decked out with weapons? According to the movie, this ship followed future Spock into the black hole immediately, so it is not as if they could’ve retro-fitted it. I can’t think of any sci-fi canon in which cargo ships are built for war. What’s with the size? It dwarfed the federation flagship. Does this ship do its mining by hauling entire moons to Romulus or something? It simply didn’t make any sense to me. Sorry!
The larger questions I have with the movie have to do with the overall plot of the movie. Think of all the things that made the movie good. Are these the things we expect from a Star Trek movie? Star Trek movies normally have overtones of politics, philosophy, and even (in DS9) religion. This movie was reduced to action/adventure. I am fairly certain that this could’ve been a random sci-fi movie with different characters and names and it would’ve been just as fine.
This leads me to my final point. This movie cannot be canonical. For if it is, everything from the inception of the original series must be changed. I think what this movie was a concession that Star Trek is a dead franchise.* The movie was an attempt to re-package the old canon for a newer generation of sci-fi kids. This is why we have young Kirk and young Spock. They’re as hip as the cast of Hereos and Lost! Someone high up there must’ve said, “awww fuck it. We can’t move foreward with the canon anymore. Let’s just make a lot of money. Do you think Nimoy will go for it?”
So there it is. Star Trek: The Apocyrpha. Good movie. Fun to watch and well worth seeing in theaters. But if you are old enough to remember movies like “Star Trek VI” or even “First Contact” for that matter, do not expect to see a “Star Trek” movie.
Thanks for reading.
---------------
*In my humble opinion, I think there is still room to make Star Trek within the canon. Deep Space Nine left the creators a lot of options, but I personally couldn’t see anything centered on the federation anymore. Could we still have Star Trek centered on other strange new worlds and new civilizations?
There were a lot of things that I liked. I loved young Kirk for instance. From the opening scene to the end of the movie, I thought he was well done. I find it totally believable that he would do stunts like steal the car, get into a fight at the bar, make out with the green alien girl, and other fun romps of a brash young military cadet. Little Spock was well done too. I liked the Vulcan academy of his childhood, how different both his parent’s were, and especially his refusal to enter into the Vulcan science academy. Seeing the characters as youngsters I think was a bold move. Overall it was successful. Additionally, as I will explain later, it was also a great selling point.
The interaction between these two characters was also true to the original series.
I only watched “Search for Spock” a few years ago. The friendship between the two men in this movie and that movie seemed pretty accurate to me.
I can’t complain about the special effects either. They were well executed without being gratuitous. The excitement of the chase scenes and the starship design was eye-catching enough to be a point in the movie’s favor. It was not, for instance, Star Wars episode I, in which special effects were simply a long video-game/demo reel. No, in this movie the CGI served its purpose. It helped create a convincing illusion of life in space. Although I admit, I totally expected young Kirk to meet Luke Skywalker when he ran into that ice cave. Live long and prosper my young padawan!
There were, however, some major plot-hole/logic problems with the movie. First, what’s up with the Romulans? The last Romulans I remember seeing were the Deep Space Nine Romulans in which they were all so bad-ass, cultured, and refined that they knew they earned the right to be a little smug around say –the Klingons. Yet these Romulans were basically a band of pirate-thugs that had lost any sense of refinement from the Romulan Empire. Maybe that was the point. After all, they did get their planet destroyed. It wasn’t made clear in the movie that this was the case though.
Another problem I had was with Sovereign, -I mean the Romulan pirate/mining ship. Why is it so decked out with weapons? According to the movie, this ship followed future Spock into the black hole immediately, so it is not as if they could’ve retro-fitted it. I can’t think of any sci-fi canon in which cargo ships are built for war. What’s with the size? It dwarfed the federation flagship. Does this ship do its mining by hauling entire moons to Romulus or something? It simply didn’t make any sense to me. Sorry!
The larger questions I have with the movie have to do with the overall plot of the movie. Think of all the things that made the movie good. Are these the things we expect from a Star Trek movie? Star Trek movies normally have overtones of politics, philosophy, and even (in DS9) religion. This movie was reduced to action/adventure. I am fairly certain that this could’ve been a random sci-fi movie with different characters and names and it would’ve been just as fine.
This leads me to my final point. This movie cannot be canonical. For if it is, everything from the inception of the original series must be changed. I think what this movie was a concession that Star Trek is a dead franchise.* The movie was an attempt to re-package the old canon for a newer generation of sci-fi kids. This is why we have young Kirk and young Spock. They’re as hip as the cast of Hereos and Lost! Someone high up there must’ve said, “awww fuck it. We can’t move foreward with the canon anymore. Let’s just make a lot of money. Do you think Nimoy will go for it?”
So there it is. Star Trek: The Apocyrpha. Good movie. Fun to watch and well worth seeing in theaters. But if you are old enough to remember movies like “Star Trek VI” or even “First Contact” for that matter, do not expect to see a “Star Trek” movie.
Thanks for reading.
---------------
*In my humble opinion, I think there is still room to make Star Trek within the canon. Deep Space Nine left the creators a lot of options, but I personally couldn’t see anything centered on the federation anymore. Could we still have Star Trek centered on other strange new worlds and new civilizations?
http://www.thebiglunch.com/big-lunch/leverstock-green-lunch
Basically, it's a party in the church yard. On 19th July the people of Britain are being asked to stop what they're doing and sit down to lunch together. Why? Well for lots of reasons really but mainly just cos we think it'll be fun.
If you're coming we're doing a bring and share - the proviso though is that if possible what you bring should be locally grown, home made or locally bought... please try to avoid pre-packaged, processed etc. and get on making, growing and baking... enough to share. We need puddings, salads, quiches, cakes, bread etc...
Sign up at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=90375326592
Basically, it's a party in the church yard. On 19th July the people of Britain are being asked to stop what they're doing and sit down to lunch together. Why? Well for lots of reasons really but mainly just cos we think it'll be fun.
If you're coming we're doing a bring and share - the proviso though is that if possible what you bring should be locally grown, home made or locally bought... please try to avoid pre-packaged, processed etc. and get on making, growing and baking... enough to share. We need puddings, salads, quiches, cakes, bread etc...
Sign up at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=90375326592
The Passive Agressive Blog
Once upon a time there were four graduate students who lived together. Three were wise but one was not. Now, I am not saying any names but you might know someone like one of these graduate students. Of course, this blog is just a bunch of silly fun. Totally! I love silly fun at 1:00am on finals week.
Anyway, the wise graduate students came to school to study. They wished to expand on the wisdom they gained throughout undergraduate. They were hard-working, although perhaps overachieving, students. Though the wise students certainly had their faults, they were all respectful to each other. They also understood the priorities that were important at this stage in their life.
One of the grad students was not wise. He behaved foolishly and sought the company of other fools. Now, he's really not that bad of guy, but wow; did the foolish student ever know how to be inconsiderate. He came to grad school because he wanted to keep living life like it was a van wilder movie.
But I remind the reader that this is just something I am making up nothing I am typing here is based on reality.
The wise students were putting themselves through the academic rigor. For they wished to advance their lives and continue to grow in adulthood. One of the wise students had a major test the next morning. The two other had recently turned in one of the most intimidating papers of their academic career. It was the middle of their last week together, and they knew they needed to sleep.
But lo, the fools came into the apartment. It was after all, Cinco De Mayo. Not that any of these fools -who I am totally making up- where Mexican or that Cinco De Mayo is a holiday that means anything, and the fools began drinking. They had deep conversations about who knew more about trivial matters. Then they drink some more. After they drank, they started talking about the last time they were drinking.
One of the wise students texted the third wise roommate, warning him not to return to the apartment. This same wise student politely told the fools that he would like it if they were quiet, for he and the other wise students had politely endured many late night parties. Now it was the end of the year, and would really like to sleep. Yet an annoying sack-of-garbage foolish girl mocked him in her drunkeness. She declared him too old. Yet it must be known that she looks older than the wise student, who maintains his health by not drinking himself stupid every fucking night.
Alas, the wise student did not even know her name or what the fuck her businesses was in this apartment, in which she didn't really belong in. A second of the wise student was busy cleaning dishes and packing up the kitchen. Yet none of fools took the subtle hint that maybe this wasn't the best place to party. The two wise students realized that many of these fools were undergraduates. Yet even other undergraduates they knew were wiser than these.
Or at least that is what might've happened if I wasn't making this story up. I mean, nothing like this could ever happen.
The two wise students eventually left the apartment for a short time. For they needed to console eachother with wisdom and banana milkshakes. The wise students consoled eachother with the knowledge that they would live in different apartments next year. They further spoke of how they wanted to think the best of the foolish roommate, but were finding it increasingly hard to do so. One wise student said to the other "this will all be in my webcomic" but of course he did not mean the Uberbean, as I am totally making all this up.
This student texted many friends. He also carefully caressed and polished his set of Cutco knives and noted that the handles are specifically designed not to absorb blood.
Wow what a weekend!
This weekend, with christian communities all over the town, we took part in 'Across Hemel' a mission event of social action, teaching and community building. To say that it was good is a complete understatement.
The weekend for us began on Saturday. Many other churches took the decision to take part in social action projects around the locality - litter picking, shoe shining, garden clearing etc. We chose not to do this for all sorts of reasons. Instead we held a FREE community barbecue in the church yard instead. Free is a theme that will run through these reflections...
We catered for about 100 people, and the best guess is that we had at least that number of people sharing time with us, more like 120! The BBQ was an opportunity to invite people, to deepen friendships. The there were two things that impressed me beyond measure. Firstly, many people in the community had seen the advertising or heard about the bbq and came - many who wouldn't normally come to church, which was fantastic. Secondly, many from our own congregation took the opportunity to be evangelists and to invite people themselves. Wonderful weather, a great atmosphere and a good advert for the free love and grace of God.
On Saturday evening, Alex and I were invited to join a team for the quiz night in the marquee i Gadebridge park. The quiz was a sell out - not that it cost to register bu the place was packed with teams of up to 8 people. We had a great evening hosted by Steve Lee - more of him later - and fun as teams, again getting to know on another better. The high point of the evening was hearing the testimony of a local Christian leader - Kerry-Anne - she was nervous! But, when she settled into what she was doing, God's free grace and love took what she said and used it. Very very powerful stuff. The story of a very broken, very angry woman transformed! Incredible!
On Sunday morning, we canceled our 10am service to encourage our congregations to come down again to the marquee in Gadebridge park to share in worship together. There must have been a congregation of about 1000 people. The worship was very very powerful and moving. God was tangibly amongst us. There was a fantastic sense of The Church in Hemel Hempstead worshiping together. real unity. The preacher was Steve Lee again. He kinda has a large Bruce Willis look about him. But what he said and they way that he said what he did about the free love and grace of God was so powerful. He spoke about the parable of the prodigal son, well used, but somehow on that say, at that occasion , fresh and challenging. I was personally moved to tears during the service and was renewed by the all too rare a chance for my family to worship together! Personally, I was delighted to see so many of the members of Holy Trinity there together - a guess says around 60 of our regulars. I would be really keen to hear their feedback - feel free to comment below or to email me...
I don't think we as a church, are in a place to be able to worship like that every week and nor do I think it appropriate. But, I did see many of our people touched and moved by the power and the free grace and love of God amongst us by the power of his Holy Spirit. Amazing stuff!
Then in the afternoon a free family fun day was held in the park with games and face painting plus a free give away - a bit like a car boot sale but without the sale! The afternoon got cold, but was well attended by people who just could not believe that all this was being done free of charge! It reminded me of the scripture - you have received without price now give without price - God has given us so much. Here was an opportunity for His church to show that in action and when asked why, to explain ourselves fully.
In the evening we were in for a musical treat as LOndon Community Gospel Choir came to sing. They raised the roof as they praised God in music and song. Jaw-droppingly good...
Again Steve Lee spoke at this event and offered the chance for people who were there, as he had done in the morning, to ask God into their lives for themselves. Many adults and teens and children seemed to respond and to receive some prayer by other people.
In short - what an amazing weekend. One that has opened my eyes to teh free grace and love of God available to us. It also reminded me of the power of God working amongst us by the Holy Spirit. It also, renewed my trust and relationship with God and I feels so blessed by having attended what I did. Now for the hard graft...
Some people who were there over the weekend from our church, were clearly deeply moved by what God was doing. Some were having their first experience of God personally for themselves. Some had their faith and trust renewed. Others still found themselves, like me, wanting more of God and more of what we saw and experienced in their own lives and in our worship. There is much to do, much to pray to follow all this up.
I pray that we may seek God's wisdom and grace not shy away from the path open before us, but instead would pray, trust, listen and respond to the free grace and love of God for ourselves and for our community.
This weekend, with christian communities all over the town, we took part in 'Across Hemel' a mission event of social action, teaching and community building. To say that it was good is a complete understatement.
The weekend for us began on Saturday. Many other churches took the decision to take part in social action projects around the locality - litter picking, shoe shining, garden clearing etc. We chose not to do this for all sorts of reasons. Instead we held a FREE community barbecue in the church yard instead. Free is a theme that will run through these reflections...
We catered for about 100 people, and the best guess is that we had at least that number of people sharing time with us, more like 120! The BBQ was an opportunity to invite people, to deepen friendships. The there were two things that impressed me beyond measure. Firstly, many people in the community had seen the advertising or heard about the bbq and came - many who wouldn't normally come to church, which was fantastic. Secondly, many from our own congregation took the opportunity to be evangelists and to invite people themselves. Wonderful weather, a great atmosphere and a good advert for the free love and grace of God.
On Saturday evening, Alex and I were invited to join a team for the quiz night in the marquee i Gadebridge park. The quiz was a sell out - not that it cost to register bu the place was packed with teams of up to 8 people. We had a great evening hosted by Steve Lee - more of him later - and fun as teams, again getting to know on another better. The high point of the evening was hearing the testimony of a local Christian leader - Kerry-Anne - she was nervous! But, when she settled into what she was doing, God's free grace and love took what she said and used it. Very very powerful stuff. The story of a very broken, very angry woman transformed! Incredible!
On Sunday morning, we canceled our 10am service to encourage our congregations to come down again to the marquee in Gadebridge park to share in worship together. There must have been a congregation of about 1000 people. The worship was very very powerful and moving. God was tangibly amongst us. There was a fantastic sense of The Church in Hemel Hempstead worshiping together. real unity. The preacher was Steve Lee again. He kinda has a large Bruce Willis look about him. But what he said and they way that he said what he did about the free love and grace of God was so powerful. He spoke about the parable of the prodigal son, well used, but somehow on that say, at that occasion , fresh and challenging. I was personally moved to tears during the service and was renewed by the all too rare a chance for my family to worship together! Personally, I was delighted to see so many of the members of Holy Trinity there together - a guess says around 60 of our regulars. I would be really keen to hear their feedback - feel free to comment below or to email me...
I don't think we as a church, are in a place to be able to worship like that every week and nor do I think it appropriate. But, I did see many of our people touched and moved by the power and the free grace and love of God amongst us by the power of his Holy Spirit. Amazing stuff!
Then in the afternoon a free family fun day was held in the park with games and face painting plus a free give away - a bit like a car boot sale but without the sale! The afternoon got cold, but was well attended by people who just could not believe that all this was being done free of charge! It reminded me of the scripture - you have received without price now give without price - God has given us so much. Here was an opportunity for His church to show that in action and when asked why, to explain ourselves fully.
In the evening we were in for a musical treat as LOndon Community Gospel Choir came to sing. They raised the roof as they praised God in music and song. Jaw-droppingly good...
Again Steve Lee spoke at this event and offered the chance for people who were there, as he had done in the morning, to ask God into their lives for themselves. Many adults and teens and children seemed to respond and to receive some prayer by other people.
In short - what an amazing weekend. One that has opened my eyes to teh free grace and love of God available to us. It also reminded me of the power of God working amongst us by the Holy Spirit. It also, renewed my trust and relationship with God and I feels so blessed by having attended what I did. Now for the hard graft...
Some people who were there over the weekend from our church, were clearly deeply moved by what God was doing. Some were having their first experience of God personally for themselves. Some had their faith and trust renewed. Others still found themselves, like me, wanting more of God and more of what we saw and experienced in their own lives and in our worship. There is much to do, much to pray to follow all this up.
I pray that we may seek God's wisdom and grace not shy away from the path open before us, but instead would pray, trust, listen and respond to the free grace and love of God for ourselves and for our community.
Too Damn Smart to Get Any?
After my previous blog on Ayn Rand and sex I have been hoping to post another follow up relational issues. Thanks to my friend Adam, I have new article that is both funny sad. Why is it that being smart doesn’t get you any?
The article starts quite wittingly:
Smart kids usually come from smart families. And smart families are usually achievement-oriented. Bring me home those straight As, son. Get into those top colleges, daughter. Take piano, violin, tennis, swimming and Tibetan throat-singing lessons. Win every award there is in the book. Be 'well-rounded.'
At the same time, there's an opportunity cost associated with achievement. Time spent studying, doing homework, and practicing the violin is time not spent doing other things -- like chasing boys or girls, which turns out is fairly instrumental in making you a well-rounded human.
Guilty as charged on my part. It’s what you get when you’re half-asian and descended from educators. I can think of a lot of other people who fit this mold too. Can we really help it if we want to be Renaissance men? Super talented ubermenschen?
Ironically, I believe that it is a drive to accomplish and to have a list of accomplishments that make someone attractive. All other things remaining equal, would you want to date someone who has completed college or someone who didn’t? Or how about someone who plays an instrument well as opposed to with mere proficiency? Is someone with a black-belt in Aikido more or less interesting than someone without?
Intelligent type A personalities have such a horrible catch-22 when it comes to dating. They can attract, but are too busy to do anything about it.
Let's say by 'smart' we mean 'in the top 5% of the population in terms of intelligence and education'. Generally speaking, smart people seek out other smart people to hang out with, simply because they get bored otherwise. And if they're going to spend a lot of time with someone, intelligence in a partner is pretty much a requirement.
This makes sense to me for the similar reasons as I explained in the Ayn Rand blog.
I think that healthy, confident, people (perhaps men in particular) seek out their equals. Sadly, those who join MENSA find their pools small. I think the article gives some good advice: loosen up.
I still can’t stand stupid girls though.
Finally there is this.
Here's an incontrovertible fact: every one of your ancestors survived to reproductive age and got it on at least once with a member of the opposite sex. All the way back to Homo erectus. And even further back to Australopithecus. And even further back to monkeys, to lizards, to the first amphibian that crawled out of the slime, the fish that preceded that amphibian, the worm before the fish and the amoeba that preceded the worm.
And you, YOU, in the year 2009 C.E., the culmination of that miraculously unbroken line of succession, you, Homo sapiens sapiens, not just thinking man but thinking thinking man or woman, are the only one smart enough to SCREW THE WHOLE THING UP.
I actually laughed out loud when I read this. Isn’t intelligence supposed to be an evolutionary advantage? I guess not. This creates a whole new level to future idiocracy.
I dedicate this blog to all my friends who are also token single guys. You all know who you are.
Thanks for reading.
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